PRESS RELEASE

Solo exhibition at the Showroom Gallery, London.

Gun Holmström
Sunday
20 March to 28 April Wednesday to Sunday 1pm to 6pm
Opening 19 March 7pm to 9pm (Gallery closed 29 March to 1 April)

The Showroom is pleased to announce that it has commissioned Finnish artist Gun Holmström to make new video work for presentation in the gallery between 20 March and 28 April 2002.

Gun Holmström has received critical acclaim for her video portraits that examine "the strange everyday world", that the artist sees around her. These works, shot in a style that sits somewhere between documentary film and the home video, introduce us to characters that may be considered as being outside the norm of society. Their different world views lead us to subtly question our own values and attitudes.

For The Showroom Gun Holmström has made two new works that study our need to believe "in something" that will help us to understand the world around us. Holmström's videos demonstrate the changing role that the Christian religion now plays in our increasingly sophisticated society. Its once dominant position as ethical and spiritual arbiter is now being challenged by a bewildering range of "isms", that we can choose between for guidance.

Sunday includes a portrait of a vicar who ministers to a remote island community in southern Finland. Through the weaving together of real events with allegory, he reveals his own personal beliefs and his attitude to his position within society. The ritual of the Lutheran church service that he performs often obscures these private opinions.

The second part of Holmström's project is an installation that shows abstract footage of locations associated with the artist. These works create meditative mandalas that explore the complexity of individual uncertainty and spiritual quest.

Gun Holmström lives and works in Helsinki. This will be her first solo show in London.

Gun Holmström will be in conversation with Kirsty Ogg, Gallery Director of The Showroom about recent projects and her newly commissioned video works for Sunday, Saturday 23 March at 4pm.

For further information please contact Kirsty Ogg or Andy Marsh on 020 8983 4115.

Project supported by the Embassy of Finland, the Finnish Institute in London and FRAME, Finnish Fund for Art Exchange. Opening sponsored by Lapin Kulta.

The Showroom is financially supported by London Arts.

The Showroom 44 Bonner Road London E2 9JS.
Nearest Tube Bethnal Green. Buses 26, 48, 55, 106, 253.

Mary Jane Aladaren, Alice Angus, Claire Barclay, Iwona Blazwick, Louisa Buck, Paul Collett, Peter Cross, Zeyad Dajani, ezppl, Rose Finn-Kelcey, FlatPack001, Frieze, Margot Heller, Claire Hooper, Matthew Hunt, Sue Jones, Jane Lee, Three Day Weekend, Paul Nicholson, Campbell & Mairi Ogg, Julia Peyton-Jones, Alison Raftery, Simon Starling, Jane Stringfellow, David Thorp, Transmission Gallery, Catherine Ugwu, Grant Watson and Gilda Williams are all actively supporting the work of the gallery by joining The Showroom¹s Friends Scheme.